By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
The Salina Liberty mounted a furious fourth-quarter comeback on Saturday night but dropped their fourth straight AF1 contest at the hands of the Southwest Kansas Storm by a final score of 22-20.
With this result, the Liberty fall to 0-4 while the Storm improve to 3-2.
Salina started this game with a bang as Jamario Benson found Malik Honeycutt twice on the opening drive, including a shot to the end zone to put the Liberty on top 6-0.
The Liberty kept the momentum when they intercepted an errant Jalen Morton pass in the end zone on the Storm’s first drive but lost a bit of steam when a bad snap rolled to the back of the end zone for a safety.
Southwest Kansas picked up the pace offensively in the second quarter as Morton found Demarius Washington for a touchdown pass of his own, giving the Storm their first lead of the game 9-6.
In his return to Tony’s Pizza Events Center, the former Liberty star showed out, as Washington would catch 10 passes on 19 targets, finishing his day with 144 yards and two TDs.
A field goal late in the third quarter and the second touchdown pass to Washington put the Storm up 19-6, and it appeared to be all Southwest Kansas going into the fourth.
With a chance to put the game out of reach, the Storm threw a pass that was caught, jarred loose, deflected into the air, and tipped into the hands of DeWayne Autrey for the Morton’s third interception of the game.
In the midst of their next drive, Salina changed things up, returning Javin Kilgo under center, and Kilgo delivered, finding Honeycutt in the back of the end zone for his second touchdown catch of the day.
The Storm would stretch the lead back to nine with a made field goal, but Salina wasn’t done yet, scoring on a toss play to Tracy Brooks from the four-yard line to cut the lead to two.
Salina got the stop they needed on the ensuing drive but couldn’t find the score they needed with under a minute to go.
Seemingly out of the game, the Liberty stalled for time, but three straight stops, including one on third down that stopped the clock, and another on fourth down in the closing seconds, bought the Liberty one final chance to take the lead.
Austin Nuefield came out to attempt his second field goal of the day, but another bad snap rendered a kick impossible, as holder Tracy Brooks scrambled around and threw a desperation pass through the back of the end zone to secure the Liberty’s fate.
Salina will continue the homestand next Saturday at 6:30 when they play host to the Oregon Lightning while the Storm remain on the road to play the Corpus Christi Tritons on the same night.